The Role of Electric Motorsport in the Sustainable Mobility Transition Master Thesis – Master Sustainable Business and Innovation Author: Bram Weggemans Student Number: 6942857 Email Address: [email protected] Supervisor: Dr. Matthijs Punt Second Reader: Dr. Toon Meelen Date: 30-06-2021 Course: SBI-Master’s Thesis Word Count: 19940 Abstract Electric vehicles (EVs) are perceived as a viable technology for the replacement of combustion engine vehicles for a transition towards a more sustainable mobility system. Transition theory emphasizes that development of sustainable technologies such as EVs can be achieved within niches, which are protective spaces that shield sustainable technologies from mainstream market selection pressures. An interesting environment that has generally been known for innovative developments with regard to mobility has recently seen an increased usage of EVs. This environment is the motorsport. This paper therefore aims to identify the role that the electric motorsport as niche plays in the development of EVs for a transition towards a more sustainable mobility system. In order to fulfil this aim, a qualitative research approach was used where both semi-structured interviews and grey literature was analysed. The electrification of certain categories of the FIA World Rallycross Championship as well as the Extreme E were selected to exemplify the entire electric motorsport. The protective space conceptualisation of Smith and Raven (2012) that focuses on shielding, nurturing and empowering processes was used to conduct the analysis and describe the electric motorsport as a niche. The analysis showed that the electric motorsport as niche shows great capabilities of making contributions towards the development of EVs, but currently is not utilised to this potential. The involved actors showed a focus which is more inward-oriented to EV development processes that were deemed beneficial for the sport rather than for the society. However, whilst focusing more inward, some valuable contributions are still made towards the general development of EVs. It was found that the electric motorsport mainly contributes to the acquirement of technical knowledge on EVs, development of the technical design of EVs, and demonstration of the capabilities of EVs towards a large audience. Based upon these findings, this paper suggests how further analyses can be made and other studies can benefit from this research. 2 Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 2 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 5 2. Theoretical Background ...................................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Origin of Strategic Niche Management and the Multi-Level Perspective .................................... 8 2.2 Strategic Niche Management ........................................................................................................ 9 2.3 Internal Processes ........................................................................................................................ 12 2.4 Niches as Protective Spaces ........................................................................................................ 13 2.5 Electric Motorsport as Protective Space ...................................................................................... 14 3. Methodology ..................................................................................................................................... 16 3.1 Research Design .......................................................................................................................... 16 3.2 Case Selection ............................................................................................................................. 16 3.3 Data Collection ............................................................................................................................ 16 3.4 Operationalisation ....................................................................................................................... 18 3.5 Data Analyses .............................................................................................................................. 19 3.6 Trustworthiness and Authenticity ................................................................................................ 20 3.7 Ethical Issues Regarding Data ..................................................................................................... 20 4. Case Description ................................................................................................................................ 22 4.1 Electrification of The FIA World Rallycross Championship ...................................................... 22 4.2 Extreme E .................................................................................................................................... 26 5. Results .............................................................................................................................................. 29 5.1 Purposes of Projects and Participants .......................................................................................... 29 5.2 Shielding Mechanisms ................................................................................................................ 31 5.2.1 Passive Shielding ...................................................................................................................... 31 5.2.2 Active Shielding ....................................................................................................................... 33 5.3 Nurturing ..................................................................................................................................... 34 5.3.1 Voicing and Shaping of Expectations ...................................................................................... 34 5.3.2 Network Formation .................................................................................................................. 38 3 5.3.3 Learning Processes ................................................................................................................... 41 5.4 Empowering Processes ................................................................................................................ 47 6. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 49 7. Discussion and Limitations ............................................................................................................... 51 7.1 Discussion ................................................................................................................................... 51 7.2 Limitations................................................................................................................................... 52 References ............................................................................................................................................. 54 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................... 61 Appendices ............................................................................................................................................ 62 Appendix A: Interview Guide (General Guide) ................................................................................ 62 Appendix B: Search Terms Nexis Uni .............................................................................................. 65 Appendix C: Grey Literature Articles ............................................................................................... 66 Appendix D: Informed Consent Form ............................................................................................... 73 4 1. Introduction Our current transport system, which is dominated by internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs), is considered environmentally unsustainable (Leibowicz, 2018). Fossil fuel combustion for transportation is a major source of air pollution, which is the leading cause of environmentally related deaths worldwide (Lanzi, Dellink, Chateau, 2018). Transportation has accounted for 14% of global greenhouse gases (GHG) in 2010, making it the fourth largest polluting sector (IPPC, 2014), where the largest contributor to GHG emissions is road transport (European Commission, 2020). Furthermore, road transportation also emits other harmful gases such as volatile organic compounds and particulate matters, which damages human health, materials and the environment (Symeonidis, Ziomas, Proyou, 2004; EPA, 2020a; EPA, 2020b). These severe consequences related to the currently unsustainable mobility system have not gone unnoticed and has led to increased interest in policy development that enables a transition towards a sustainable mobility system. A number of promising technologies have emerged that offer a different vision of what the sustainable mobility system could look like (Leibowicz, 2018). One of the most promising technologies of achieving sustainable mobility are electric vehicles (EVs), which have achieved increased attention from policy